Currently, graphical offline programming solutions simplify robotic path teach and paint process development. The solutions are specifically designed to create robotic paths that can be utilized by robot controller application software. These solutions include calibration features in which offset data is calculated and a method is provided to the user to manually shift or offset the taught paths.
In current implementations of robots utilized for painting processes, tracking frames and user-defined frames are generally available to globally shift taught points at run time. However, these frames must generally be calculated and set manually by the user. In non-painting systems, vision is sometimes used to assist the user in this activity.
Additionally, offline simulation solutions may have calibration utilities to calculate the offset data based on teaching and touching up points on a simulated CAD model of the part to be painted. However, the existing calibration utilities only provide the user with offset data to manually apply to the taught paths of the robot. Furthermore, the offset data provided by existing calibration utilities may not be expressed in the proper frame.
Finally, calibration utilities are known in the art to calculate stationary frames in robot work cells used in a production setting. However, these calibration utilities are only capable of calculating frames for fixed work pieces in fixed work areas and do not take into account a work piece on a moving conveyor. The current calibration utilities also require special tooling or hardware to perform the calibration.
The prior art has been inadequate in a number of ways. First, the calibration utilities known are vastly limited because at least some amount of manual calculation on the part of the user is required. Second, in a painting operation, methods of incorporating vision to assist a user with the known calibration are not always feasible due to the hazardous paint environment and a limited camera field of view. Third, because the current calibration utilities require special hardware, the overall calibration utility can become quite costly. Fourth, existing calibration techniques that do calculate frames and offsets do not properly account for a work piece on a moving conveyor. It would be advantageous if systems and methods of calibrating a robot could be improved.